Collecting Pieces
by The Dirtwater Fox
Summary: Faced with an opponent more powerful than he, even when combining with his demon inhabitant, can handle Naruto must return to prepare his friends and build an army.
1. Chapter 1

"My friends," his voice echoed across the clearing of destruction. "My family," he turned about, slowly taking in the sights of his ruined world. "My pack," before him lay the utter destruction he had released upon them all. "I go now to set things right." he stood silent a moment longer before his hands were brought together. To an observer, though there were no living creatures left that held the capacity to be such, the lone figure suddenly seemed to expand a hundred times. His body remained largely the same. Though what changes did occur were drastic, such as each finger extending, crooking into sharp clawed digits, and his eyes changed from piercing blue to a demonic red, slatted with pupils of a far more animal appearance.

His expansion was not in body however his height and width remained. Rather, it was his presence that suddenly increased with otherworldly influence. Above him, behind him, in front, beneath, to the sides and in fact, all around and through him; burning brighter than the sun in his unholy light, stood the ethereal form of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, the nine tailed fox.

Within the burning chakra, the figure, that of the last man standing, slowly opened eyes that had closed with the emergence of the fox's spirit. "It is time, my friend." His voice was subdued now, unlike the powerful oration he had possessed only moments before. "**Yes my Kit.**" The demons voice thundered across the arena of death, stirring the errant spirits and rattling the un-dug graves of the tragically deceased. Despite the fearsome power in even it's quietest of conversational tones, the man wasn't fazed. Though there was no one around other than him, he was more than touched by the reverence and despair in the once feared demon lord's voice. He smiled softly, unconsciously manipulating his chakra in such a way as to affect a petting motion. The great Youkai only twitched an ear at such a thing, amused and deeply touched by the simple gesture. His container had initially been a source of great contempt, irritation, and violent hate for the Kyuubi. Over time however, things had changed…

* * *

Through the eyes of his of his jailor, he had witnessed the great strength the child had possessed. Even from birth, his container had been the scapegoat for the simple-minded humans who inhabited the Village hidden amongst the Leaves. In his first weeks of life, the infant had been the subject of heated discussion amongst the council of elders. They would stare at him with intense hatred and abject fear as they fought the Hokage's wishes and will. Single council members fought for nothing less than the death of the squealing baby before them. Sarutobi weathered this all with the quiet aplomb of a true leader, and the unflinching determination of a man who was truly in the right.

Meetings were called daily, often ending with old men hoarse from putting vintage throats through youthful efforts. And in these numerous meetings of the revered Shinobi Council of Elders, proceedings always, always followed the same path. They would begin calmly, pleading with the Hokage to listen to the logic of what they were saying. When this was found to be futile, as it always was, they would move on to shouting. When this too was found to be futile, they would try the sinister ploy of bringing into question the village and villagers' safety. Sarutobi would counter every telling point, and every lofty speech with a cunning unmatched by all. Eventually, months after the infant's first and even second birthdays, the meetings had petered out until the toddler was left alone. Life would move on with the hostility continuing, though it was now veiled.

In the mean time, a law had been passed to deny the mention of the unique nature of the child. Said law was a law that had been upheld by an extremely strict set of consequences. Sarutobi's law was never written, but all who had any tangible memory of the terrible near destruction of Konoha two years before knew it. Any mention of the demon contained within the small child faced dire consequences, ranging from banishment to execution. Despite this law however, the people did seemingly everything in their power to come as close to breaking said law as possible. As a consequence, Uzumaki Naruto, for this was the demon containing child's name, grew up in an environment nearly devoid of affection and human compassion.

* * *

The only bright points in the boys dark life were when he was able to interact with the only figure he could connect the confusing feelings of happiness to; Sarutobi. On the few occasions that the Hokage had free time available to him each year, he would spend the day with Naruto. It disturbed him greatly to watch the child's development. Quiet and skittish, the boy would always need a few hours to open up to the aging Sarutobi. With each visit, when Naruto's personality finally won out against his defenses, it would reveal the slowly growing depravity that his prolonged isolation wrought upon his innocence.

With the passage of time the villagers had been slowly deterred from any personal action against the boy. This was due both in part to the ANBU members assigned as his guardians, and the ever-present threat of Sarutobi's law. An unforeseen consequence of halting the immediate physical threat to the Naruto's life was the metaphorical dagger that had been violently forced deep into the poor boy's psyche. When the open hostility had ended, the entire village seemed to almost unanimously decide to ignore what they thought of as the blight upon their village. So, instead of giving the growing child a lifetime of unknowing self-loathing, they had seemingly ripped his life, and in fact, his very existence away from him.

Now possessing an advanced case of reckless self-endangerment, even with the guidance and protection of his guardian ANBU, he would seek out any attention possible.

He seemed to disregard consequence, though the truth was far from this. He thrived on the trouble caused by each incident. In fact, these were the only times that he could feel alive. When people were hurling obscenities at him and cursing him for his antics, they were not ignoring him. Mischief became his only window to true interaction with the world.

Matae and Lin-Lo, who had both become grudgingly fond of their charge, were silent and aloof by necessity, so Naruto could not even converse with them more often then the few times his behavior, for good or ill, had warranted. With his guardians and Sarutobi, a seldom seen grandfatherly figure, as the only inlets for, and examples of, proper social contact, it was no wonder that he was left craving for anything resembling such sessions. The Hokage, despite his considerable power, was largely unable to do anything in regards to the situation, and as the years grew in number, a fear had begun to gnaw at him.

Sarutobi could often be seen in a meditative state, perched upon a pillow and positioned to stare at the youthful face of the monumental carvings upon the face of Hokage Mountain. The most recent addition, the fourth Hokage, the man Sarutobi had picked to replace himself, only to replace the Fourth and step back into office after a retirement that had been entirely to short. In this pose, he would remain for hours at a time, in silent contemplation of his fears. If put into words, the Hokage's fears were thus: 'If Naruto, container of Kyuubi, remained the object of such treatment… would the seal upon him, designed to allow Naruto access to the nigh infinite well of chakra the demon possessed, be revealed as a horrible twisting of good intentions? Would Naruto, a child subjected to the torture of bearing out the hatred of all those around him, snap and finish the job the powerful Youkai had started?' His fears would be laid to rest upon the day of Naruto's eighth birthday.

* * *

"Welcome Naruto, to _your_ new home." Adding emphasis to the word 'your', the weathered face of the Third cracked into a soft, caring smile as he glanced down upon the boy. Naruto looked about his new residence with eyes aglow in wonder. He paused in his observations to look up to the old mans smiling face. "My new home? All mine?" Naruto practically squeaked out the last part. Truly, he owned few things. The small room that had been his residence for the past eight years had been bare of decorations and personal ornamentations. His only possessions had been his clothes, and a few small toys. Even the room itself, the dresser his clothes had been contained within, and the futon he had slept on had merely been provided by ANBU. So the concept of owning something so large as his own home was nearly beyond his limited understanding.

"Yes Naruto, all yours." The man was outwardly all smiles for the boy, although he was inwardly raging. At eight years old, though full of cunning and a very strong set of instincts, the boy was hardly a match for most four year olds in the area of intelligence. The Hokage had tried on numerous occasions to have the boy enrolled in school, with various degrees of failure. Each occurrence had left the boy heavily scarred emotionally. Teachers refused to teach, and in doing so had shown such animosity that the children in the class would taunt and tease the boy. It grew worse at every attempt, the boy never progressed in such an environment, and with every passing year, the gap in intelligence showed more tellingly.

He was brought out of his thoughts by the high-pitched voice of Naruto. "-Out Lo-Ma?" Naruto had said this with a serious look on his face, causing Sarutobi to frown. Trying to pick out the rest of the boy's sentence from his immediate memory proved impossible. So he laughed kindly and made a show of inserting his pinky into his ear and wiggling it about. "What was that Naruto? My old man hair must be messing with my hearing again." Such antics never failed to bring a delighted giggle out of the boy, and this time was no different. His question was put on hold, long enough for a little song and dance from the boy about 'Old man hair'. Soon enough however, he was back on track. "What about Lo-ma?" 'Lo-Ma' was Naruto's nickname for the ANBU pair, Lin-Lo and Matae, who had been his guardians since long before the child's first word. The Hokage shook his head slowly; knowing that what he was about to say was not going to be pleasant for the boy.

"Naruto…" He started to say, but he suddenly found himself unable to continue. One look at Naruto's face was enough to banish the careful speech he had prepared for an explanation as to why the ANBU would no longer be a constant presence in the boy's life. Naruto knew and, though the look of sadness in his eyes was heartbreaking, a grin was slowly starting to form upon his face. "At least they can have time to themselves now." Sarutobi found himself quietly amazed at the boy's fortitude, 'Perhaps,' he mused privately. 'I needn't worry so much about having a future Kyuubi attack in the form of this boy. He cares so greatly…' He was once again brought to reality as Naruto continued. "Old man…" The grin on Naruto's face was gone, and his voice lacked the exuberance it always held. For a moment, his voice was flat and emotionless.

"I know…" He paused, seeming to collect his thoughts. "I know I'm not as smart as the other kids." Naruto looked to the floor, his voice still quiet and flat. "And, and I know you don't have the time to teach me." His voice had grown louder with determination, he had quickly said the last part while lifting his head to look the old Kage in the eyes, and preventing him from the negating argument he had been prepared to give. "But I don't want to be… Please… find someone to teach me. Please?" His eyes had begun to water as he voiced this secret need. It briefly caused Sarutobi to wonder. 'Naruto has never shown any interest in schooling before. What has caused this sudden ambition?' He readily agreed and was already in the process of mentally sifting through candidates to be Naruto's tutor.

They held a small private party in the confines of Naruto's apartment with each enjoying each other's company as well as the bond between them. As the night grew long, the Third eventually led Naruto to bed and tucked him in for bedtime stories of the great heroes of the past. After a time, when he had become convinced that Naruto had fallen asleep, he stood to leave. Just when his hand touched the handle of the door, he heard a quiet voice behind him. "Old man?" "Yes Naruto?" Without waiting for the old man to turn around, Naruto continued. "You told me once, that the Hokage is not only the most powerful Ninja of the village, but someone who must protect his village and it's people at all costs. You also said that no matter what his personal feelings, or the feelings of his people… He must act for the greater good of Konoha…right?"

Sensing the grave importance of what Naruto was saying, the Hokage merely nodded, waiting for whatever words would come next. "Then, some day… I will be Hokage. Someday, I will protect this village with my life. Then they will have to recognize me. To do that… I will become smart, just like you, old man. Then, then they'll have to… " But whatever the final words would have been, only snores greeted the Hokage's ears. He remained standing in place for several moments longer before smiling softly and exiting the building. His fears had been banished, though it was merely replaced by bewilderment. 'How', he found himself thinking, as he would in the years to come, 'How could a boy treated as he has, come to hold his home and everyone in it with such high regard, that at eight years old he can speak with absolute conviction about protecting such a place with his life?' Just as he would at each repetition of his musings in the future, he merely shook his head now, took a puff of his ever-present pipe and laughed softly before moving on.

* * *

Soon after the night of Naruto's eighth birthday, things began to change for the better in some small ways. A tutor had been found, though tutor and student both were at odds and ends from the start, over the course of the next two years, both had become something more. They had become, in a word, friends. This was a wholly new experience for the young container, and he flourished under the tutelage of the man he had come to call Iruka-sensei. Naruto had proven to a bright and inquisitive student, when he was pushed to pay attention. More than that, he began to go out more. This was not always a good thing however, as a more outgoing and intelligent Naruto meant, more often than not, wilder and better thought out pranks. He became a devastating force in a different way than the village had ever considered.

This did eventually begin to fall to the wayside as Naruto was given the sponsorship of the Hokage himself to enter into the Shinobi Academy. Though this at first had been a repetition of Naruto's previous experiences in schooling, Iruka had gone on to earn his teaching license and had quickly replaced the cold and hostile instructor. Two years passed by the wayside as Naruto continued to grow. He had met and become acquainted with several of the boys in his class. Sometimes performing mischief with them, sometimes simply reveling in the wonders of just playing around.

Naruto eventually passed the Gennin exams, though in a fashion unexpected. In essence, he was able to pass by way of mercilessly beating on one of his former teachers. This caused no small amount of surprise in the assembled students the next morning and, less than an hour later when the teams were announced, placed Naruto in a position that had him set up for long term hurt and longer term good. Placed in a team with Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke was something that would lead to a sequence of events that would eventually find their way into the history books of Konoha. Well, if Konoha had been able to remain the same, this would have been the case.

* * *

The Kyuubi smirked inwardly as his memories continued to play themselves out. His host was busily reviewing the summoning techniques required to call fourth the powers necessary for their plans. Their had been many hardships for the boy to face on his way to becoming the man the Kyuubi was now less than displeased to call his Kit. Years of constant training, telling losses, near death experiences, wonderful romances, and exhausting sessions with his Youkai contained had led up to their recently fought battle for supremacy. Yes, more than most things, the Kyuubi still longed for freedom, but he had come to accept his lot in life. More importantly, he had accepted his role in the coming battle. 

In their final confrontation, Naruto and Kyuubi had come across the knowledge that all was not as it seemed. Instead of the all-powerful warriors that had fallen under the wrath of his host and himself, they had proven to be nothing more than figureheads. These figureheads were simply the mortal Champions of a force that had even the greatest of the Youkai shaken. It had no form, no name, and was something absent from knowledge simply for the fear it evoked. The fox knew of it only in the most limited sense, but this was more than enough to motivate him to act.

Once his host had recovered, he had set about informing Naruto in all that he knew. Once he had had time to absorb what he had been told, Naruto had simply nodded with a firm set to his features. He had said only one thing before the planning had begun. "Tell me what must be done." So, in the following days, Kyuubi had begun explaining things that no mortal had ever had the right to know, and under any circumstances less extreme, Naruto would be executed along with the Kyuubi for the knowledge he now possessed.

"**The Covenant,**" Kyuubi had explained, "**Is something far older than myself, older in fact, than any demon still in existence. Simply put, as it would take far to long to explain in detail, the Covenant is in place to compel all demons, from the greatest to the lowest, to work together to preserve the life of our home.**" The Kyuubi limited his explanation only to the information particular to his cause. Knowing that if he revealed too much, he would only give his container the chance to get sidetracked. Despite this limiting, it had still taken nearly three days to explain the necessary and, after a few hours of debate, begin to formulate a plan. Which brought his mind to the present.

"**It is time Naruto.**" His host simply nodded and began to bring his hands together to form the seals. "I call to thee, great Youkai of the scorching sands, creator of wasteland, and implore thee to hear me. I speak of matters direly important to you and your domain." Naruto spoke in a language he barely understood and, if not for the changes the Kyuubi's presence had wrought on his form, would never be able to even attempt speaking. The demon tongue was harsh and fluid all at once, and held such power that Naruto could hardly imagine anything resembling a casual conversation in it.

Not so far away, in the body of one of the fallen, a great surge of power made itself known. The rotting corpse that had been its prison exploded in all directions as, by power of the covenant, the One Tailed Demon Shukaku was, in essence, reborn. Heeding the call, his essence boiled into the air, expanding before Naruto's very eyes until it was a mass equal to the Kyuubi's own. However, unlike the Kyuubi, who remained a mass manifestation of chakra, Shukaku seemed to gathered the bits of debris and sand from the area around itself until, towering above what remained of the once landmark sized trees, the one tailed demon stood in all his sinister glory.

"**KYUUUUUUUUUUBI!**" Shukaku bellowed out the fox's name before proceeding forth in a stride that shook the earth on which he tread. "**What cause do you have to call upon the covenant**," Shukaku questioned and, by the look upon the Youkai's face, it was obvious he wanted nothing more than to continue roaring out questions. Said look was a perfect mirror of the demons plans, in fact, given the chance, he would rally off demands for answers, recriminations, and a slew of insults so unholy as to make even other demons blanch. Unfortunately for him, he was unable to voice any of it. Bound as he was to the covenant - the moment the next summoning began, he was forced into silence.

The signs Naruto had made previously were repeated with only the final sign changing. He focused another burst of chakra into the air and called for the second demon. "I call to thee, great Youkai of the prevailing winds, creator of storms, and implore thee to hear me. I speak of matters direly important to you and your domain." There was a long silence after his call, but as instructed, Naruto waited in silence; hands still clinched in a painful contortion of demonic focus.

Finally, after nearly half an hour of waiting, a time when Naruto's hands began to feel as they would never leave their position of calling, a powerful blast of wind swept across the clearing - heralding the arrival of the Two Tailed Demon Lynao. In her majesty, Naruto was held in awe. This demon dragon of the skies came into the clearing not with garish words, but with a solemn dignity. Four great wings folded themselves along her lithe form, and her tail curled about her legs as she settled onto the ground. With a curt nod towards Shukaku, and a graceful bow of her long serpentine upper torso to Kyuubi and container alike, she spoke. "**I have come as the covenant demands, and I will listen to whatever my honorable brother the fox, and my bastard son, the raccoon, have to say.**"

Kyuubi only smirked inwardly, as it was not yet his turn to speak, but he was amused at the impotent rage on Shukaku's face as the one tailed Youkai weathered the insult. Shukaku gnashed his teeth at his dragon 'mother', seething at his enforced silence. The covenant had very strict rules, and to break them was something the raccoon would not do even in his most irrational of states. Lynao smiled softly, basking in the hatred that pulsed off of her son, having known in advance what the barb would do. She was inwardly regretting her actions however, figuring that anything grave enough to require a human - container or not, to be given knowledge enough to invoke the covenant, was a serious matter. One, which, she was sure, would require the cooperation of all parties.

With a mental nudge from Kyuubi, Naruto inclined his head slightly and, after shutting the mouth he was unaware of dropping open, he ran through his signs a third time. His voice called out strong and clear again to begin the next summon. "I call to thee great Youkai of the impenetrable wood, creator of forests, and implore thee to hear me. I speak of matters direly important to you and your domain." As before, Naruto waited with his body rigid and his hands locked into the final sign of summoning. The wait this time was nearly as long as Lynao's, but Naruto was patient. After all, if his plan was accomplished, he would have more time on his hands than he would know what to do with, so what were a few hours, more or less?

These thoughts and more held sway over his mind, but every time they threatened to tread upon fearful grounds, they were viciously assaulted and forced aside by Kyuubi, who was more than certain enough for the both of them. Thankfully, he wasn't given enough time to continue down those paths more than once or twice before the earth began to shake mightily. Naruto mentally cocked an ear, trying to recognize the familiar pattern. The mystery was ended when a stag, whose size made even the assembled Youkai look a bit on the short side in comparison, leapt into view. Landing without skidding, the massive Three Tailed Demon Nezuma gazed regally over them all before snorting and stating simply, "**I have come**." The assembled nodded, and the process began again.

* * *

Several hours had gone by, and now all were arranged in a rough circle. Naruto finally took his place at the final opening and glanced around at each demon before he closed his eyes and spoke several words in the demon tongue. These words were mirrored by each of those in the circle and the effect was immediate. The sky darkened around them and the earth on which they stood lost all shape and color. They were soon in a sort of 'in-between' place. Naruto was dumbfounded as he looked around, his mind trying to take it all in. There was no light, but it was not dark. There were no boundaries, but Naruto couldn't seem to look past any of the demons. 'All in all,' Naruto found himself thinking. 'To borrow a word from Shikamaru, this place is troublesome.' He smirked slightly, allowing himself a moment of amusement before the Kyuubi brought him back to the present. 

"Right, I'm sure you're all wondering why the covenant has been invoked." In this place, Naruto discovered that both Kyuubi's and his own voice came out as one, making for an interesting sound, though again, he wasn't given the chance to ponder this with his 'companion' pressing him. General murmurs of assent met his ears after upon his statement. "So let me quickly explain why, and once I've made it clear that I did not speak lightly when I said they were dire matters." Naruto had to pause for a moment, trying to come up with words to explain what the fox had shown him. After a time, he just shrugged and continued.

"In the demonic language, or any language for that matter, there are no words to explain the creature I have brought you here to discuss. There aren't even any solid concepts to attach to the creature. This would allow it to be forgotten, and hopefully, once forgotten, it would disappear forever. Sadly, this was not the case. Now, the nameless has returned, and its intentions are clear. Religions the world over speaks of the end in hushed tones and holy words. Armageddon, Ragnarok, Judgment Day, and many others are the cute titles that run along those lines. That, my demonic friends, is its intentions. For whatever reasons, life is its enemy, and therefore, if the nameless has its way, life shall die." Naruto finished his little story and gave them all a moment to digest the rather large hunk of 'scary shit' he'd just handed them. After he'd finished, there was a moment of silence amongst the demons before all hell broke loose.

Eight voices used different words to describe the same four stages, shock, denial, rebellion, and finally acceptance. Naruto weathered it all and let them come to an uneasy quiet. He stood as unmoving as stone until finally, coming from the level headed Seven Tailed Tigress, Naruto got the question he wanted. "**So, what is your plan Fox-boy**?" To this, Naruto only smiled sadly and shook his head. "You won't like it, but… In a nutshell, I want you all to throw away your freedom. I want you all to be contained in humans of certain potential and, over time, let your souls combine completely with them. I want you, each and every one of you, to assist me in tipping the woefully uneven scales of power."

Naruto again went silent, knowing that even with the rules of the covenant, the things he had asked of them would enrage them to the point that they would be unwilling to listen. True enough, the moment he had fallen silent, hell was visited upon him for the second time in as many quarter-marks. They assaulted his ears with accusations, insults and vulgarities. They argued that a human could never know what he was asking them to do, and roared at the fox for going along with such a plan. It was also stated that his time inside the human must have 'screwed his head up horribly'. When the last point had been made, Shukaku unrepentantly rallied with the fox for a moment, stating that he too had been inside a container, but this only got the raccoon served up as an example.

Finally, Naruto and Kyuubi both roared for silence. Because they had been the ones to invoke the covenant, they were instantly obeyed. Naruto remained quiet for a moment before nodding to himself. "**Believe me, I understand what I am asking you**." Kyuubi's voice now rang out clearly above Naruto's in a tone of solemnity. "**I have suffered for many years, as has Shukaku, but my time was not without some reward. Through my container's experiences, I have learned of many things that a Youkai could never experience, felt things you could not imagine and…**" Here the fox demon paused, unsure as to weather or not he should share the last bit. "**I have even come to care for my container as I would a cub. However, these things are, I'm sure, irrelevant to you all and more than likely scoffed at. I must also say that I have become far more powerful! But…**" He sighed softly, causing his manifestation to flicker momentarily. "**But, I am not enough. To defeat the nameless, an army is needed. For that, I need all of you.**"

When the Kyuubi finished speaking, all were silent in contemplation. Looking around, Naruto took time to study each of the gathered Youkai. They were all looking grave, but that was expected. What Naruto had been hoping for was thankfully there however, and he was relieved. Each of them was considering it, and for now, that was all he or the fox could hope for.

* * *

Time passed, how much was uncertain as this 'in-between' place provided for no way to gauge its passing, and eventually led to the tentative assent to hear Kyuubi and Naruto out. "**We will hear you, and we agree give full consideration to your plan, but beyond that…**" The rest was left unsaid, and of course it didn't need to be said. They were only given one chance. If Naruto and the fox failed to convince them, then they would have to come up with another method to defeat the nameless. 'Well then, here's the plan. First, we must contact three of the universal guardians. Time, Recall, and Flux."

According to what Kyuubi had told him, Death and Flux were not only necessary to their plans but, as luck would have it, were also the least impartial of all the universal guardians, though Time would be tricky to convince. "We must convince Time to return me, and all of you, to a period two years before my birth. To do that, we have to convince Flux to alleviate the paradox such a thing would cause. That part at least should be easy, because Flux loves to mess with Time's 'perfectly' laid out sequence of events. We need Recall to lock my memories away inside my newborn body. I want to be able to recall them only before certain events, and occasionally as dreams to set myself up and to help me set others up. Recall should also be easy to convince because each memory is precious to her, and this will not only create more, but it will preserve a world of beautiful places to remember. Time…" Naruto shrugged for a moment, at a loss for words at this point. "I'm going to need help on convincing Time."

"Now," Naruto continued. "The second part of the plan goes as follows." His plan was discussed at length with the other Youkai, and eventually, all had given their reluctant agreement. So it was that Naruto formed the seals to dissipate the 'in-between' and once more found himself on the scarred plain, surrounded by several resigned demons. His plan was set into motion and things soon were moving faster than Naruto could have imagined. Recall and Flux had indeed been easy to convince, and with their help, Time had fallen quickly enough. The tailed Youkai had all chosen their containers, excluding Shukaku and Kyuubi who were simply remerging with their containers.

Nearly a week passed between the time the Covenant had been called and the time that the final preparations had been completed, and so now the Youkai and Naruto were all gathered once more in a circle. There were no words passed between any of them as they each bowed to the inevitable and gave their power over to the boy who had somehow done the impossible and united the Youkai under human rule - at least, that's how they chose to look at it. And with a final sequence of hand seals, the world as they had all come to know it, ended.

(AN: _Ahh, the first chapter in what I hope to eventually make an epic of sorts... Pairings will be announced at some point in the future... but just so y'know.. I happen to lean towards NaruIno; just a warning.)_  



	2. Chapter 2

(Okay, so here's chapter two of Collecting PiecesI'm not to happy with or my computer right now, as both have been making getting this uploaded a living hell. Twice before I even finished writing the damn thing, my computer decided to shut down, losing me over an hour's work the first time, and the last third of the chapter the second time. After the second shut down, I basicly said 'Fuck it' and decided I'd round out what was left and upload that. I will be making the third chapter longer because of my current laziness.. also, chapters will be getting longer and longer, or so I say, as I get further into plot development and have more to write about in each period of time that my muse is present. Oh yeah, the reason FF pisses me off.. is because I had to reformat the story so damn many times(4), and then, when I finnaly did get the fucker to upload, I had to redo the occasional bolding and italicizing... here ya go. )**  
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**Chapter One**

He would journey to the past, for the good of the future.

All Naruto knew when he woke up was pain, plain and simple. He could not remember anything past or present as he stared at the canopy above him. He had no clue as to who he was, nor did he care. He was also unsure as to why exactly he was laying on his back in a smoking crater in the middle of the woods. The only thing he could say for certain was that whoever was causing him such ungodly amounts of pain - pain that left him in a fetal position and drained him so completely that the gut wrenching screams he was trying to perform only came out as whimpers - was going to be very dead when he could move again.

His body remained curled tight for time out of his reckoning, but it was dark when he could at last slowly ease out of position. His senses were boggled up and distorted, every movement he made seemed to be going in the wrong direction, making it difficult to do any more than flop around on the ground at first. Eventually though, the burning, itching sensation that surrounded his every joint, muscle, tendon, and, as odd as it sounded - even to him, his internal organs entered remission. With the retreat of said burning and itching, he was able to rise to his feet, though it was at a necessarily cautious pace that he did so.

Naruto, though he still had no memory of anything prior to waking up in pain, was sure he'd never felt so pathetic in his life. A half hours struggle saw him leaning up against a tree not more than fifteen feet from his impact crater. Taking labored breaths, with eyes to his surroundings, Naruto began to contemplate his next move. "Okay." He said, finding comfort in the sound of his own voice - at least something was working right. "I seem to have amnesia." Well, that was one thing he knew for sure. Some part of his mind seemed to be telling him to figure out what else he knew for a fact, so he could go from there.

"I'm in a forest, where it is or how I got here is unknown… although I seem to have fallen from quite a height…" The last part seemed ridiculous, considering that such a fall should have killed him, but that was his theory for the moment. "Last but not least, in fact, at the moment it's rather important to me, I'm naked." His nudity rather disturbed Naruto, for he was sure that it was not voluntary. "Okay, so I'm in an unknown situation, nothing to defend myself with, nude as the day I was born, and completely and totally lost… Oh if Ero-Sennin could see me now, I'd never hear the end of it. This is just…" His brain finally kicked into gear, realizing he'd just said a name, Naruto tried desperately to figure out from where on earth he knew it. Much cogitating yielded nothing however, but he clung to that name like a drowning man to driftwood. It was frustrating to no end, for Naruto could remember nothing but a name. Beyond how much that bothered him on a personal level, he had a feeling that if he could not regain his memory, and do so quickly, then something terrible might occur.

With nothing else becoming apparent, Naruto simply started walking. Burrs and twigs made his trudging quite the weary affair, but he kept on without pause. His body, for whatever reason, seemed almost immune to the inconsequential pain of his feet, a fact he was very glad to discover. Despite the darkness, and his ongoing discomfort, he never stumbled - all the same though, something seemed almost silly about walking on the ground in such a forest. 'As if there's any other way,' he thought with a snort of amusement. Finally though, he did stumble; or rather, something cold and slimy had alighted on his foot causing him to jump and twist about in the air - one hand flying to his bare hip as if in search of something. When he looked down to try and discover the source of his panic, he was relieved to discover that it was only a frog, though it was hopping funny, dragging its back legs as if crippled…

----

_ Running, so much running. Naruto's lungs burned, his eyes fogging over with red, but he would not stop. At seventeen, he'd spent almost his entire life in constant training, long distance runs were nothing to him - but he was weighted heavily, exhausted from a pitched battle, and bordering on ten hours of the most breakneck speed he could accomplish. Chakra was being burnt off at an alarming rate, and his own supply was nearly gone. Were it not for the demon fox's help, Naruto was sure one of three things would have failed by now: the chakra keeping that old pervert firmly anchored to his back, the copious amounts of chakra it took to keep the stress out of his legs as he pushed them beyond what his muscles would have normally allowed, or the almost painful amount he had to keep forcing into his lungs to ensure that they wouldn't collapse from his never ending panic breaths._

_They had been on the hunt - Naruto, Jiraiya, Gendo, Makai, and Sakura. - On the hunt for an S-class Shinobi. Their target, Hukaido Masamoto, was a sinister man who specialized in forbidden techniques, something Naruto had known, but not fully appreciated. Less than a week outside of Konoha, they'd encountered Masamoto's trail and followed him doggedly. When they eventually cornered the man and attempted to subdue him, Masamoto had unleashed truly horrifying techniques upon them all. Gendo, a relatively unfamiliar tracker on loan from Konoha's hunters, was the first to go. Naruto had ordered him to attack from the side to distract him long enough for Naruto to work around to his rear. The whole plan, to avoid as much personal injury as possible, had been to keep the missing nin attacking shadows until Jiriaya could complete the complex seals necessary to bind Masamoto's chakra. Funny how things never seem to work out just right, isn't it?_

_The moment Gendo had unleashed his first senbon assault, the kinjutsu user had immediately oriented on him. Combining complex seals from both traditional Ninjitsu and some unknown discipline and finishing with the ram, Masamoto rent Gendo into several pieces by pure force of will. Despite the horrifying end of one of their own, each nin present knew their duty. Makai, a self titled comedian who had livened every campfire with ludicrous stories and believable imitations, attacked without hesitation; all mirth gone in the gory aftermath of Masamoto's assault. Makai had more luck than Gendo, but still not enough to save himself with. With speed reminiscent of a young Rock Lee, he had dodged through several powerful elemental techniques long enough to deliver a powerful physical assault. Masaqmoto, despite possessing an insane amount of disturbing execution jutsus, was simply not capable of following that speed. For a moment, as Makai continued to reign blow after blow down on their target, it seemed they would only have the loss of Gendo to mourn, but they would be proven wrong quite swiftly. A chakra barrier deflected a swift ax-kick aimed at either crushing the man's skull or simply rendering him unconscious, and Makai suddenly found himself locked into a genjutsu the likes of which he could not have imagined. Naruto had not seen what particular illusion forced him to do what he did, but he had seen the results. Makai had withdrawn from his one-on-one and dropped to the ground screaming and withdrawn a kunai for each hand. Naruto watched helplessly, to far away to stop his friend in time from disemboweling himself._

_He'd lost it then, letting the rage he felt give the Kyuubi license to emerge and commence the slaughter. Over the years, through constant use of the Kyuubi's chakra, his seal had weakened to the point that he no longer had much control over the fox's actions when he emerged, and this time was no different. He experienced a gap in his memory from the moment the shroud overtook him, to the exact moment the pain of losing an arm shocked him back to the present. The shroud had retreated, and Masamoto still stood - a smug expression lining his now bruised and bloodied face. Ero-sennin, his beloved sensei, lay on the ground beside him, unconscious and bleeding from a large hole in his abdomen. Before his brain went into shock, he desperately called for Sakura, hoping to save the life of the man who'd taught him so much - She hadn't come._

_Naruto smelt trace amounts of Sakura's blood, but after making sure he couldn't sense her life-bereft body, he did what he had to do. With his one remaining arm, he grabbed up Jiriaya and ran. Tears burned through his eyes, threatening to conceal the path ahead of him, but Naruto allowed hatred to drive them off. His gaping socket, the place where his left arm had once swung from, had long since stopped bleeding and was now scabbing over. Youkai healing having taken over that particular injury, Naruto now only had the dying man on his back to worry about. He didn't know where Sakura had gone too, and the pervert on his back remained unable to tell him._

_So he ran, and kept on running. Eventually, even the Kyuubi's chakra had run out, and Naruto had immediately lapsed into a blissful coma. He had awoken some several weeks later in Konoha's hospital, discovering after much inquiry, that his grandfather figure lived, but would never walk again. Sakura had returned to Konoha in time to summon help, and Naruto had been picked up by a group of medic nins while an entire squad of ANBU had hunted down Masamoto and destroyed him. Sakura herself had not escaped unscathed. Though Tsunade was able to repair much, the face of Naruto's first love would forever bear the scars of having her cheek ripped away by hand._

-------

SICK! SICK! Naruto's mind was reeling from the sensual overload. Sending panic signals to his body as it tried to regain it's equilibrium, Naruto's stomach, already queasy from witnessing the horrifying scars on that beautiful girl's face, reacted to it's specific signal and turned over. Still disoriented from the sojourn through memory, Naruto could do nothing but collapse as the gruesome details filled him up and were vomited out. He lay there heaving, his esophagus aflame with the passage of bile. Some time after his stomach settled and his breathing returned to normalcy, Naruto remained on the ground by the pile of nauseated refuse, whimpering quietly as tears washed his face clean.

-------

He slept where he'd fallen; his only wayward movement during the night had been to turn away from the choking fumes that gathered around acid-scorched forest floor. When dawn came to him the next morning, Naruto was feeling marginally better. While he slept, his mind had been filled with strange visions: A man with a mischievous air around him had come to him in the darkness. Naruto, even in the dreams of his amnesia riddle mind, could feel the power emanating off of him. Respect for those of unimaginable power was inherent in the human mind, and it came to work now. Standing stock still, he waited until the man, whoever he was, delivered his message. Before the vision could disintegrate, Naruto quickly posed a question. "Who am I", was the query. "As corny as it sounds kid, you're one of them 'Last Hope's' everyone's always talking about," was the response.

"Fuck," was the first word out of Naruto's mouth as he awoke with a start. "I wanted to know what my name was!" There you have it, despite years of grueling warfare and living with the haunted faces and battle scars of friends, Naruto was still Naruto. He asked a simple question, and he wanted a simple answer. Though nameless he might have been, he was no longer purposeless. The.. Vision? had given him instructions on what to do next, as well as given him a little background information for some basic piece of mind. "Even if the bastard forgot to mention my name," came the grumble as he reached that point in his thoughts.

The Vision had mentioned something about paradox and such, but Naruto had largely tuned out what he didn't understand. He hadn't meant to, he had simply done it as if it were a habit, as if there was some part of his brain that would listen, that would understand. Regardless of what exactly he'd missed, Naruto was confident with his next objective at least. He would have to -

Naruto's senses were suddenly cutting in on full alert. Thought slipped to the wayside as pure instinct took the steering wheel. His head jerked to the side as the first kunai whizzed by, his body soon following in a tuck 'n roll. Six muted thuds followed in a line along his trajectory without connecting, with the seventh and final one driving itself forcefully into the thick bark wood of Naruto's new hiding spot. What the brain lacked, the experienced body more than made up for. Years of conditioning had his less than supple form hauling ass up the tree at his rear, preparing for an assault his brain no longer recognized. Briefly showing himself to attract more of the versatile throwing knives his way, and when the enemy Shinobi tried to hole him a moment later, Naruto equipped himself with the spoils of war. To Naruto, all this was occurring in a surreally fast paced frame of time; the twenty or so seconds it had taken him to get to this point gone in a blink of an eye.

---------

To the Shinobi, a proud Rock Nin born to the name of Hasen Pin and his mother's grace and speed rather than his fathers stocky shock trooper build, on the other end of this fight, things seemed to be moving along in quite a different fashion. He'd happened upon the nude man on the last leg of a long distance scouting trip and, figuring him to be the victim of some local shadiness, had been looking forward to interrogating him for answers that would otherwise cost him many miles and tense situations to unveil. His intuition had been proven wrong the moment he had launched his kunai. Somehow, the man had not only dodged the first, but succeeded in completely avoiding his attacks. A moment later, the naked guy had shown himself for the scantest of seconds, and so the Pin had tried again. Pin rather liked his hiding spot, set above the forest floor and hidden behind some low hanging branches, he figured he could exhaust the man with impunity, but he came to find that he'd thought wrong a few seconds later.

Pin almost missed the tiny shakings of leaves that were a dead give away to movement, but having caught it did him no good. The quiet rustling had only occurred just before a pale blur rocketed out of the foliage and flew in his direction. His target had curled himself into a ball to make a small target, but it made no difference to Pin. He had been selected in part due to his throwing accuracy, and there was no way the naked man could change direction in midair. As the human ball began to uncurl above Pin, his body easily shifted to accommodate his new angle and, without further hesitation, his arm shot forward and was about to launch his kunai when a most peculiar thing occurred. Just as his hand began to uncurl in release, a chakra shield of unimaginable power slammed into like a concussion wave sending his body flying back into the trunk of his 'tree fort.'

---------

Although Naruto's mind had begun to catch up with his body, it still had no problem giving over to Instinct when his eyes spotted the movement unique to throwing from the hip. Without thought, his body protected itself. However, such was the power of the adrenaline coursing through his veins that it's chakra barrier-defense became something not unlike an explosion. He did not pause, not even for a moment, but rushed immediately forward upon landing. The enemy Shinobi was just starting to recover when one of the Rock nin's own kunai shattered his teeth as it passed by to bury itself in the back of his throat - severing his spine near the base of his skull. After that, it was all over but the bloody gurgles.

Some time later, after removing everything of use from the slain body of the enemy Shinobi, Naruto was sitting by a small campfire, happily devouring his first meal since, well, he wasn't sure. Travel rations were typically poor fare, but hunger was indeed the best spice, and the dried beef disappeared quickly down Naruto's hatch. While eating, Naruto had begun to look over his new gear. Discarding such useless items as the 'House of Sake' membership card and various other personal effects, he was left with a tight-fitting suit in desperate need of tailoring, several projectile weapons, three smoke bombs, a small roll of explosive notes, a pack of senbon, a spool of garrote-wire, about 400 (American equivalent) in cash, enough rations for three more days, a map, a compass and, best of all, a pack of cigarettes.

Filling his lungs with stress releasing tar and nicotine, Naruto was at last able to find a rational state of mind to think things over with. He began to hike in a roughly west by northwest direction, following the map as closely as he was able without a clear sense of his starting location. As he walked, he let his mind drift where it willed, mulling over the little bits and pieces of memory that had come to him since waking the previous day. He had a few names to apply to a few faces, and a much clearer idea as to who and what he was than before; though his identity was still largely a mystery, as were his origins. What he did know for certain was that his body was a trained killing machine. He may have suffered revulsion at his first carnage filled memory of the prior day, but when it had come down to a direct threat against his life, he had acted towards the only acceptable outcome with ruthless efficiency; survival.

---------------

His trek, initially long and exhaustive largely due to his amnesia addled brain, became mildly better on the third day. Each night he had received another spectral visit from his vision, and the following morning had been flooded with memories - many were painful for differing reasons. Sad and happy memories also returned, but he was afraid the process would take to long. With every dawn, Naruto knew more and more about his objective, and his sense of urgency increased. Each day he would pace himself on the tree-covered mountainous terrain, careful to strike a balance between pushing himself to hard, and not pushing hard enough, but on the third morning a memory of immeasurable import made itself known. Naruto had just relived several classes of chakra manipulation along with a few of Kakashi-sensei's skill-building sessions, which meant, in the short term anyway, that Naruto now sailed along the tree branches like a proper Shinobi.

Naruto's ETA on the ground to his first stop had called for another three days at the least, but in the treetops he moved much faster. A village marked on the map, which he hadn't expected to arrive at for several days yet, was looming on the horizon before his muscles even had a chance to tire properly. Cautiously entering the village, and guided by directions given to him by his dream/vision, Naruto made his way down the dirt street to a solitary set some distance apart from the others. After repeatedly knocking on the thin wooden door he'd come to, an old man finally answered and opened the door. "Oy, old man. I heard from a strange glowy-robed guy that you were the man to see about seals," Naruto said, as blunt as ever, but before he could say anything further, he received a smart rap atop the head from the old man's cane. "Y'ge' away frum'ere y'damn hooligan! You ain' gonna be stealin' a Kami damned thing!" By the time the old man had finished yelling, Naruto had been cracked close to ten times by the knobby cane the old man wielded with some skill and had been the victim of a stand-by spitting at least twice that many times. Finally, the old coot tired and leaned heavily on what had just been his weapon of choice, giving Naruto the time he needed to rub his sore, aching head. While he attended to what promised to be a bit of a knot above his left eye, Naruto tried a different approach. "Not ste-al-ing, sealing! I'm here to ask for your help in sealing," expecting to have this nonsense put aside now so he could get on with the rest of his plans, Naruto was sorely disappointed. "Eh? Y' are here t' see Lin? Firs' y' are wantin' to rob me blind, 'n now y' wan' t' ta'e away me only daughter? Why you just stan' th'ar and give me a moe' t' rest so's I cin gi' ya another whoo-" "Grandpa!"

At the sudden vocal interjection, Naruto and the old man both turned their attention back to the inside of the hut. Where, with a bright smile on her face, stood a rather pretty young woman. She hastily walked up to the door and stepped out, admonishing her grandfather with a wag of the finger, "You know what he was saying!" The old man began to look appropriately guilty as Naruto leveled a healthy glare at him. "We'll ta'k ebou' yer seals then, boy, bu' ge' in the house, quickly!" Naruto did as he was asked, and soon he was sitting cross legged on the floor, a piece of parchment between himself and the old man. On the parchment, while giving a rough explanation of his situation, Naruto traced the fine lines of demonic seals from memory. "So here I am, in a suit that's cutting off the blood flow to a few to many areas all at once, with very little idea as to why I sought you out, and in need of help with…" Naruto paused for a moment as he added in the last few seals on to the diagram before holding it up for all to see. "This!"

Both old man and daughter were staring at him as if he'd grown a third head. The story he had told them was preposterous: Waking up in the middle of nowhere inside a smoking crater, running through the woods naked until he'd single handedly taken down one of the invading Rock Nin and stolen his clothes, all this before a vision guided him to seek out an old warrior priest with help in creating one of the most complex seals the wizened eyes of said warrior priest had ever seen. Never the less, Naruto's unassuming manner and naïve expression lent him a credibility that was not to be denied. The old man agreed to help Naruto, although it had taken some of the traveling funds Naruto had appropriated, and then sent his daughter on her way to the market for dinner.

The next few days passed quickly for the three inside of the hut. Naruto busied himself with cleaning out the old man's cellar work shop, the old man himself was in near constant meditation to build up high enough levels for massive sealing, and the daughter, who Naruto now knew to be Lin-Yo, took care of getting the necessary ingredients for the ceremony. Eventually though, all was taken care of, and the three met in the cellar to do the deed.

----------

"Okay Noodle-" "You know," Naruto said, interrupting the old man before he could get any further. "Just because I like ramen doesn't mean you can call me Noodle all the time." To which the old man replied, "After you ate nearly a half month's supply of ramen in a single day? I believe I could call anyone with such an obsession 'Noodle,' besides which, you still haven't remembered your name!" This argument had already started getting familiar. Naruto may not have remembered his name yet, but the familiar scent of ramen wafting from the towns solitary restaurant had triggered a feeding frenzy in the blond, and he'd nearly been run out - had he not payed in full and left a sizable tip - after finishing off nearly ten family sized dinners before proclaiming, 'Ichiraku's is better.' "So," the argument continued on Naruto's side, "you still don't have to call me Noodle, why don't we just pick a name?" And so the argument would continue, with Naruto picking the kind of names more suitable to Action-Hero comics, and the old man leaning towards embarrassingly cute ones with both parties vehemently defending their selections.

Such arguments were always being played out during inappropriate times, and were almost always silenced quickly by the much less child-like Lin who, despite being the youngest, reasoned herself to be the only mature person in the hut. "Boys!" Her particular screeching interjection never failed to bring about a halt to such silliness as the men-folk tended to indulge in, at which point they would act like sullen children of the hand-in-the-cookie-jar variety. "Sorry," came the pouty reply from Naruto. "Yeah, we're sorry Lin," followed the old man in a tone more appropriate for a five year old. "Well then," said Lin, the argument already forgiven. "As long as you both are sorry, can we get back to what we were doing?" What they were doing was performing the seal that was the whole purpose of Naruto's visit. Now, gathered around the angrily burning candles, the morbid chickens'-blood kanji, and the eerily terrifying gurney that Naruto would soon be strapped down to - The three stood in a moments reflection.

Plans are an anomaly in life. They come in many shapes, sizes, extremes and disciplines. Back up plans; plans A through Z; escape plans; assault plans; but despite all the numerous names and titles, every plan has one thing in common - They all, to a certain point, end with an unknown. The plan for today was simple: Naruto would be strapped down into the gurney, his clothing removed so that the complex demonic kanji of the room could be properly tied into the complex demonic kanji that would soon be placed on Naruto's body, at which point the words of empowerment would be whispered over him. The unknown was what would come after - They knew that a demon would be called, and an extremely powerful one at that, but beyond that, the end result was a mystery. Summoning the Kyuubi no Kitsune could simply be beyond their mortal power and not happen, or it could completely drain their collective life force and still accomplish nothing. Another possibility was that the demon would appear and destroy the entire village, or not. It was simply an unknown.

Naruto had the confidence of someone who knew that he would succeed, which the other two didn't share. To them, Naruto was the unknown. He possessed very little memory, but what memory he did possess was terrifying. From the mumbles in his sleep, Lin and J' Uko - for that was the old man's name though Naruto had never bothered to learn it - were able to glimpse at terrible evils being performed. His cries for help and please for forgiveness seemed to each belong to a different face, a different memory. What life, they often wondered, were they helping? Were they helping the tired soul of a Hero who had simply seen to much and become lost, yet still driven to do good? Or were they simply enabling a warlord to reappear? When such doubts plagued them, they would rely on the faith that Naruto tended to inspire in those around him. Despite his clumsy nature, fumbling speech, and density of mind, a truer person you would never find. So it was with a heavy heart that Lin and J'Uko strapped the young man, who'd stumbled into their lives with a smile and a laugh, down onto the gurney and retreated to their perspective places on each side of the outer circle.

"Hey…" Naruto's voice was quiet and serious, which by itself was enough to stop the two in their places. He didn't wait for an answer or expect one, merely continued talking. "I don't know what this seal will do to me, and I don't know what'll happen afterwards… but I want you both to know that I will never hurt you… I give you my word." With that said, he fell silent and closed his eyes tightly. J'Uko and Lin looked at each other a long time, considering his statement. Naruto's word, they knew, was unbreakable in his mind, and the young man would suffer death gladly before breaking it. Despite how they wanted to back out of the ceremony, afraid of losing the innocent and single sided entity that the blonde was, each knew he would keep his word to them no matter what. How then, could they do any less for him?

-------------

"We invoke thee, Demon, and call you to our aid."

_There in the familiar dark hallways of Naruto's mind, a great evil began to awaken stir._

Naruto screamed, his body arcing violently against the restraints that held him to the table. The bloody kanji took on an unearthly glow, literally rising from the ground and flickering, as if aflame in midair.

"We invoke thee, Demon, and bid you to bring your wrath."

_Eyes filled with a dark intelligence began to open, alternately seeking freedom and familiarity._

Frothing at the mouth, Naruto was now straining so hard against his bindings that the solid steel gurney had bent into a lazy U-shape to compensate. Fresh blood spilled at his wrists and ankles where manacle and shackle alike had cut deep into his skin at the behest of his struggles - Naruto was unaffected.

"We invoke thee, Demon, for great wrongs must be made right."

_Nine terrible tails began to thrash in agitation as the great destroyer found himself unable to escape confinement._

Naruto's body, previously a rigid arch, now slumped against the ruined table, causing it crumple to the floor. The room in which the three had performed the ceremony now lay in shadow, the burning fire of demonic kanji had all been absorbed into Naruto's form at roughly the same moment a chill wind had swept through to extinguish every candle. There were no sounds other than the paniced breathing of Naruto, and in a moment, even those had ceased.

Nothing was said between old man and doting daughter for some time, both afraid to voice the fear of failure that enshrouded like a foul stench. When, eventually, the decision came to leave, both went about their business in a respectful silence. A gossamer blanket was draped across Naruto's still body once he'd been layed out straight, and he was left in peace. Several villagers came by in the passing of the day, each one curious as to the screams and subsequent dissapearance of the amusing man they had sheltered. Each and every one of them had been turned away by mournful faces and quiet words - a good life had been ended before it's time, and that was all anyone needed to know. But perhaps, had they not been expecting some grande occurance, they might have noted the subtle changes being wraught in their basement… instead of simply burying Naruto in an unmarked grave outside of town.

-------

The wall at his back gave way with a thunderous crunch on impact. Naruto, having just been the victim of a tsunami-force tail swing that sent him to the now collapsed wall, rose shakily to his feet. His mouth set into a determined line, Naruto brushed the dust and debris from his body as he stepped out of the rubble. His body ached in a thousand different ways and places, and Naruto was sure some of those places hadn't even existed before and only could now so as to convey his pain to him. The battle had been long, and Naruto was quite sure that he was on the losing side. His body, despite being powerful on it's own, was at a distinct disadvantage now that it was used against the very creature that generaly made it so insanely strong. So he teetered there, intent on stabilizing himself before rushing in again. The Kyuubi had other ideas however, as it's head jutted forward open mouthed in another attempt to spear the pathetic creature before it one long canine.

Instinct, ever the surviving part of Naruto, activated yet again to keep Naruto on the side of injured instead of dead, leaping him out of the way. The battle was both pivotal and pointless. he and the fox knew this - for their was no anger between them, only friendship. Naruto could not die here in his own mind, nor could the Kyuubi truly hurt him. Sadly, such things must still occur. Releasing the Kyuubi was a gamble of a life time: A gamble with both their lives. With the seal released, a rush of power that was simply beyond belief occurred and, just as it had in Naruto's own life time, the two had to burn off as much energy as possible. The environment was unstable, warped by the overwhelming Youkai that came from the fox, but gradually stabilizing. Rock that had yielded as easily as water now felt as real as it would in the corporal world when Naruto or the Kyuubi went crashing through it. Eventually though, the power drain had been accomplished as far as was needed, and the two were at rest. Naruto; currently reclined on the particular pile of detris he'd last created, sighed softly while looking across the face of one smug fox demon. "You know," he started to say before interrupting himself with a gasp of pain as he put an arm back in its socket. "You're a real asshole." The Kyuubi only laughed before a flicker of his tail sent Naruto crashing through the barrier between sleep and consciousness.

----

At somewhere just past two in the morning, the world suddenly turning bright as day is rather an unusual affair, even during war time. So it must be said that people had some justification in wanting to follow EOTWEnd of the World procedure; bending over, tucking heads between legs, and kissing ass's goodbye. It was therefore understandable that J'Uko and Lin were found in a compromising position when Naruto entered their hut a moment later, dirty, bruised, and looking somewhat different than he had before.

His body, the host of conscious demon once again , had been unable to completely contain the emerging chakra and had simply vented, simply being a realative term. What had occurred, in the eyes of those people who hadn't had a long association with a demon infused Naruto, was the coming of the Appocolyspe. The ground had bucked hard underneath them a half second before a pillar of light had appeared in the sky, turning darkness into crimson hued day. To Naruto, such thigns were rather routine. After taking a moment to get his bearings, Naruto clamored out of the second smoking crater he found himself waking up in inside of a week. With an annoyed grumble about being naked, again, in such a situation, he began to brush himself off as he walked back towards the village. He saw many odd things in passing as he approached his destination such as people, young and old, gripping their ankles and praying to Kami. Naruto, worried about being left out of anything that looked as funny as this, walked up to someone and asked what it was all about.

The encounter was a bit odd and left Naruto vaguely discomforted. He went over it in his mind, intending on asking the old man and Lin what it was all about when he got there. "Oy, you there," He had said. "Yes, what is it," came the middle-aged woman's reply. "Uhm," Naruto continued, "why are you standing like that?" The woman had turned about then, an awkward motion that consisted of wobbling around in tiny little shuffle-steps to complete a half circle, to look at him before replying in an almost cheerful voice, "It's the end of the world! Are you here to take me to my Eiger?" A little put off by the woman's upside down smile, sunny disposition, and most particularly, the combination of these things while delivering her statement, Naruto could only shake his head while backing up. He asked no more questions, and the woman promptly ignored him in favor of kissing her posterior once more, so Naruto, thoroughly weird-ed out at this point, ran the rest of the way.

"Oh Kami, not you two too!" These were the first words that J'Uko and Lin had ever heard a dead man say - which, in retrospect, might have been a bit disappointing when you consider all the things a formerly dead person ought to be able to tell you. Regardless of any future disappointment, the sealing duo's reaction for the moment was to scream.

(AN: I was to pissed off to mention it above but, to all of those who reviewed, Thanks! I intend to send you a piece of the third chapter some time before I finish and post the rest... just cause you were nice enough to review in the first place. Obviously, I review each privately as they come, though I will answer reoccuring questions in the Author Notes as long as they do not pertain to plot that I haven't revealed yet.

Hope you enjoyed.

Kou. (The Dirtwater Fox)


	3. Chapter 3

(**AN:**Yes, I promised a much longer chapter last time, and yes.. you will get it.. but not this time. You see, I've written myself into a bit of a corner. If I continue from where I have it stopped... I'd run into the snag that has delayed this posting. I know it's short, and I know it's a bit of a cliffhanger. But I have my reasons. Oh yes, I also have two Anonymous reviewers who need a reply. DarkMan: Always glad to hear I've got a fan, hope this chapter dosn't dissapoint despite it's shortcomings. I intend to finish it, though I might have to put a hold on it for several months if things work out right IRL. And... uh.. doyoulikelikethename: Thanks for the praise, I know.. I'm godly. -grin- Alright. to answer your question? I'll give it a possible. But I'll be honest, I'm not a major fan of NaruSaku, simply because of how she acts towards Naruto. They do make a cute pair when pulled off right though, so it just might happen. If you'd have asked for a NaruHina however, I would be much, much-much less polite about my answer. In fact, you'd probably hate me and my story within a couple chapters. Also, because threesomes are always breeding grounds for amusement, jealousy, and pain in the ass scenes... well, it could happen. -mind currently on the perverse aspect of what Naruto in a relationship with two most attractive females of the Rookie Nine would entail- Ahh.. also. I just saw the word count on this, and to be honest.. I'm emberassed.. but I still can't put much more in yet. )

(**ANC: **In other business though, those of you who are desperate to see the romance that the story sorting promises.. keep waiting. It'll happen.. but I despise when it happens in the space of a paragraph... so it'll have to build... and the others aren't even introduced yet, so yeah, it'll be a while.)

**Chapter 2**

**Familiar faces in unexpected places**.

There were screams in his ear, but to Naruto, such thigns hardly mattered at the moment. All around him was a battlefield, and the prize was Konoha. "Reinforcements to the wall!" "Medic!" "KILL THEM ALL!" The roaring of the accursed Atkatsuki's allies reached every cornor of Konoha, matched evenly by the eternally laughing flame of utter destruction. Konohagakura, once hailed as the strongest of the Five great Hidden Village's, was now little more than a collection of rubble beneath a defaced mountain of faces. The collected soldiers and zealots of the demon reinforced Red Dawn collective had appeared as if on a whim, nothing and no one had been able to even slow their initial assault. By the time the Konoha Shinobi had rallied, the citizenry that was the back bone of each and every Leaf Nin there had been broken.

Naruto ducked in between buildings, fighting when necessary and fleeing more often than he had ever imagined doing in his entire life. Three of the great nations had allied themselves to Atkatsuki, seeking to follow in the powerful wake the remaining 5 had stirred up. Some months before this very moment, they had appeared, 10,000 strong, on the border of The Hidden Sand. Their troops, a raging horde of hypnotized barbarism, had swept in without warning and left the village a ghost town by morning. Without the seemingly infinite power of Shukaku behind the Kazekage they had only been a relative few to the juggernaut mob. Gaara, despite the loss of his demonic co-inhabitant, had stayed to nearly the last, sacrificing himself so that a few remaining merchants, children, and innocent citizens could survive.

So now here he was, in charge of what could possibly be the last orders that his grandmotherly Tsunade would ever give - "Konoha is no longer feasibly defensible. Withdraw to the hidden retreat until such time as a pilgrimage to safe territory can be made. Kami-bless." She had been near death when Naruto left the Hokage in the care of two young medicnin', and by the grevious looks on their faces, Naruto doubted he would ever see her alive again.

He was currently in the process of wending his way through the rubble strewn neigborhood that had once housed his childhood apartment in such a manner as to inhibit pursuit, in hopes of loosing his three tails before he got to one of the many pocketed resistance groups. Delivering these orders went against everything he knew, to retreat before an enemy that was invading his home, but he knew it to be for the greater good. It didn't help his feelings any to see the rage in each fighters face as he delivered the message.

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Outside of Naruto's tortured dreamscape, Lin and J'Uko hovered over him with mirrored looks of concern in evidence. The visitor's body had begun to thrash mightily around on his sleeping pallet, moaning pitiably and generating enough chakra to light the room. SO it was with great trepidation that Lin reached forth slowly to wake him.

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A group of Cloud Nin had surrounded Naruto now, and he was in trouble. Carrying wounded on his back wasn't the best time to awaken an ambush, never the less, he had done it. There were five, four Jounin and one Chuunin, and all of them were armed to the teeth. The initial attacks were all dodged with relative ease, but Naruto landed badly on an unstable pile of rubbble, turning his ankle painfully. Three days of no sleep and constant adrenaline as his only sustenance had weakened his body considerably, and it was telling in his movements.

Removing a speer, and whispering a prayer over the body of the fallen man he'd taken it from, Naruto launched into action. The Fuma Shuriken that approached him from the side was batted away by the heavy steel shaft, and the offending thrower was soon impaled. Just as he turned about to face the rest pf his attackers, a lancing pain tore through his left pectoral just above his heart. The offending arrow was, for Naruto's personal survival, a bit of a mixed blessing. Despite the fact that it rendered his left arm temporarily out of commission, it had finished off the injured man lashed to Naruto's back, and thus relieved him of a burden.

_Naruto… Wake up…_

He jerked to the side, bothered by the sudden voice. It didn't belong here, or was he closer to death than he had thought, and the messengers of Shinigami had come for him. He wasn't sure, but he still had other worries present. His sudden move had thrown things out of sync for only a moment, and the Cloud were attacking again with renewed vigor. Suddenly, one was upon him, threatening to choke the life out of him. So he reached intent on choking the life out of the man. With his eyes ablaze in prime-evil fury, he began to squeaze, stareing into the eyes of this hated nin, watching as his -

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- Her breath ran low. Lins eyes began to flutter as she made tiny muted gasps. The old man was beating on him with all his might, But Naruto wouldn't let go. He would kill the son-of-a-bitch cloud if it was… but it wasn't a Cloud at all. Lin looked at him with muted horror and a desperate plea, but even recognizing her, he was still unable to release the tension in his fist.Finnaly, just before Lin lost consciousness, he let her go with a jerk and bat the attacking J'Uko aside. He stood without a word to either of them and began to dress, collecting all the little bits and pieces he'd brought with him and since bought. Finnaly, just as he reached the exit to the hut, he turned to them, a sorrowfull look on his face. "I will leave now, you people have been entirely too kind to me for me to stay after such an act." With silence as the only reply, Naruto left the quiet hamlet and never looked back.

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His first emotion was joy. Uchiha Sasuke was not a man possessed of a vast emotional well, so such a thing required truly remarkable circumstances. At this moment, the events taking place were certainly remarkable. His last rational thought was absolute hatred as he watched his hated brother dispatch Orochimaru - his only chasnce of defeating said brother. There after, he'd lost his mind and become the vessel of something far greater than himself. The pure hatred and malevolence that had taken over his body had awed him to no end, but despite that, he had loathed it. The presence forced him to work with his brother and Atkatsuki, using the Sound village as just another group of Atkatsuki storm troopers.

Later, he'd been defeated and put to rest by his second most hated opponent, the very person he'd loved more as a brother than his biological sibling Itachi; Naruto. He had gone to the grave hating life in its entirety, and because of this, he was being given a second chance. The hateful sentience had somehow gotten wind of a plan set for it's demise, and had acted to fix this. The result being that Sasuke had been sent back in time, fully empowered to stop said plan. He would now get the chance to avenge his own death, kill Naruto, and finish off the world that operated on such unfair principles.He stood now, in a body constructed in the likeness of his fully adult body, but much stronger. He'd been informed that, in order to fight Naruto on equal terms in power, he would be reborn with a Void Demon firmly connected to his soul. This was something Sasuke fully enjoyed.

He had been called back to a time roughly a year and a half prior to his birth. Unknowingly, he entered the world in a much less painfull fashion than Naruto had before him. He awoke alone in a graveyard, several earthen mounds ripped asunder in his periphery, fully naked, but in full possession of his faculties and memories. Looking around himself, he happily noted the drunken stagger of an amazed crypt keeper. It was quick work to relieve the man of his sodden rags and bury him in still open grave. His body was blessedly free of that annoying cursed seal, and better yet, he was even more powerfull for it. The remainder of the imported bottle the aging crypt keeper had carried was downed, quenching his indomitable thrist for a minute and helping ease the slight buzzing in his head, and he weas soon walking swiftly to the cabin on the north side of the graveyard.

With the assistance of a large brass skeleton key, Sasuke made his way inside to greedily devour the remains of the late owner's last meal, and then rapidly finishing off the remaining bits and pieces in the mans fridge. In the hunger that came from a completely empty stomach, even the partially soured food tasted as if it were a dream. After he'd eaten, he took time to check himself in the cracked bathroom mirror, mildly amused at his new complexion; a light smokey blueish color that spread in waves across his skin like some sort of tribal tattoo. Sasuke approved.

Feeling in much better spirits now, he gracefull fell onto the empty bunk inside the small cabin and proceeded to meditate until his chakra levels had built up properly. After a while, he fell asleep without meaning to - his nearly empty chakra levels providing him with vast fatigue.When he woke up some ten hours later, he nearly felt himself, or at least, what he thought he could remember himself feeling. But then, he must be more powerfull now with the demon, or perhaps it had to be unleashed as Shukaku with Gaara, or Kyuubi with Naruto.

After much debate and observation, Sasuke decided that the demon could wait for the moment, as he had other things to attend to. A quick visit to the bathroom, and a much smaller secondary meal then his first, along with a quick raid to the crypt keepers closet saw him standing by the door, wrapped up inside a heavy trench coat, ready to go. "Places to go, people to see, future generations to erase." His laughter trailed him into the darkness of predawn.

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Naruto had been traveling for roughly six months as he had it figured, and the constant travel had been good to him. His body had regained much of it's former tone. His memories, though, were still incomplete, but only to a limited extent - childhood. His brain felt like swiss cheese when he tried to remember anything that had to do with friends and his surrogate family, but that was to be expected after all. The Demon Lords were busily sifting through his brain to find suitable hosts to train, and so they had only given him memories that weren't associated with those of potential. It was odd, to know most of the candidates that were beign chosen since his youngest years, yet remember nothing about them. Three of the lords had chosen but, for the moment, the rest remained undecided

He was currently on the hunt for a notoriously bad gambler, and world renowned peeping tom - two of the three great Sennin that were legendary even before his own day. The only major snag he'd run into up to this point in his journey had been information gathering. He didn't intend to head into Konoha at this time, so he couldn't be entirely sure if either had officially left yet. Regardless of whether Tsunade had left, Naruto knew for a fact that his old perverted sensei was already on the out-and-about, because of the little orange book he kept in his pocket - for those lonely evenings.

Despite any real lack of findings, Naruto was not disappointed. He remembered well the effort it had taken to track down Tsunade, along with unbelievable amount of skill the old pervert had possessed when it came to making himself scarce. Besides which, it wasn't like he hadn't made progress in other areas. He was just picking up the search again after all, having recently finished a trip to Snow Country. 'Matter of fact,' Naruto thought to himself, 'might as well take a break. I hear the ramen calling, and I mustn't keep it waiting.'

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Naruto had quickly located the nearest restaurant and ducked inside, intent on filling himself with the ever so delicious miso-beef-naruto-shrimp-ramen. Having been on travel rations for the past week and a half, Naruto had been impatiently waiting to sink his teeth into real food and could only think of a few things he'd rather do at the moment then get ahold of his food. It was even debatable which he'd have chosen at the time had he been given a choice: Find the Sennin', or eat his ramen.

However, he was rather happy to not be given a choice, sicne this allowed him to eat his ramen guilt free. Eating guilt free was exactly what he had been doing - gobble, gulp, snarf, chomp - when a familiar voice interrupted his enjoyment as readily as kunai to the balls.

"Still making a pig of yourself over those disgusting noodles, eh, Dobe?" The voice had been eerie, but until the last word, Naruto hadn't even given a thought. He froze in place, chopsticks halfway to his wide open mouth, the moment the word dobe had been spoken. Slowly, so as to calm his suddenly pounding heart if nothing else, he put his bite back in the bowl, took a sip of sake, and turned his head to the occupant of the booth behind him. There, in the flesh - though it appeared to be put together from several other peoples flesh - sat Uchiha Sasuke, calmly eating a sashimi plate and sipping at his own mug of sake.

(**AN: **Okay.. so now that you see my cliff hanger, and the unbelievably bad shortness... Let me explain my reasons, and my snag. Okay, reaons first... All I had left to write before I hit the snag was gonna be a fight between Naruto and Sasuke... but I didn't want to include it in this chapter because I wasn't sure if I wanted them to fight yet. The snag? Alright.. a bit of a hint on the future here, The next chapter is going to be much more plot advancing.. but I'm not sure where I want it advancing yet. So I put it to my readers... Should I simply write out the rest of Naruto's time in the past, or move onto to the time of his birth? If I write out the next year and a half, you will get alot of detailed insight that might possibly expose some future developments and ruin a bit of the surprise... or be an exciting adventure all on its own. Orrrrr... I could simply move onto his birth after Naruto and Sasuke have their little get together... Drop a line and let me know what you guys want, alright? Oh yeah, once I clear this up, I'm going to reload the chapter after adding much and reworking some so that I may keep my promise. Hang with me until then, allright guys 'n gals?)


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